The weather has thrown a spanner in the Flag Day fautasi race schedule and fans have to wait one more day to see their favorites in action on the high seas.
The races planned for tomorrow have been called off, and are now tentatively set for Thursday, but only if seas are calm and don’t pose any threat to the safety of all fautasi.
Rough seas forced the cancellation of the two qualifying heats which were set for today, and the Race Committee, along with the co chair of the Flag Day Committee, Lt. Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga postponed the races to tomorrow.
After checking on sea conditions outside the harbor early this morning, and being briefed on the weather forecast, Lemanu and the Race Committee decided that the seas would still be rough and not ideal for fautasi racing.
Mindful of incidents during last year’s race where some fautasi took on water and capsized, the committee wants to prevents a repeat, which would put the lives of crew members or others involved in the long boat races at risk.
All of the boat captains have been informed of the tentative race scheduled to Thursday.
A spokesman for the committee says two qualifying heats will be held to pick six fautasi with the fastest race times to row in the finals.
In addition the Fono fautasi will race against the executive branch long boat.
Times for the races will be announced tomorrow.
In other fautasi news, the group from Manono which arrived on the Lady Naomi today did not bring their long boat, Telefoni o le Vainu’u.
Instead Manono has requested a long boat from the territory for their use in the finals on Saturday.
As of this afternoon, none of the villages with fautasi has offered the use of their boats.
